Grace

by Thilo Wydra

  The night of love between Robie and Francie is accompanied by an orgasmic fireworks display, which the American censors wanted to completely cut out because of its presumably explicit character. Hitchcock stubbornly defended the scene. The no-less-explicit sofa scene was ultimately shortened some. After all, it was 1954.

  To Catch a Thief was based on a 1952 novel with the same title written by David Dodge. This was the second screenplay for Hitchcock written by John Michael Hayes, who had already written the screenplay for Rear Window and who would go on to write The Trouble with Harry (1955) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Hayes adapted Dodge’s novel for the screen by adding sparkling, intelligently humorous dialogue.

  To Catch a Thief was filmed in the wide-screen process called VistaVision, Paramount Studios’ equivalent to Warner’s and Fox’s CinemaScope. The film is preserved in a richly faceted and beautiful color spectrum, saturated and vibrant. It is permeated with a glistening light of an almost tactile quality. They are magical images, full of elegance and class and style. Hitchcock purposely had the green-blue shimmering nights photographed through a green filter. The visually atmospheric density evident in the night shots and those taken up on the rooftops, especially the final chase sequence between Cary Grant and Brigitte Auber, reveals this. The film truly glows, and even decades after its creation, it is commonly described as “a feast for the eyes.” For his achievements, Hitch’s longtime cinematographer Robert Burks (1909–1968) received an Oscar. Burks was one of Hitchcock’s most important and loyal collaborators. With the exception of Psycho, he was responsible for the cinematography of the black-and-white film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train (1951), Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, and finally Marnie.

  Furthermore, To Catch A Thief received two other Academy Award nominations, for Best Set Design and Best Costumes (Edith Head).

  For Grace, this was her third and last project with Alfred Hitchcock. The director would “lose” her only one year later to Prince Rainier III—ironically, it was her stay on the Côte d’Azur, Monaco that spurred this chain of events. However, although it is claimed again and again in different documentaries and biographic publications that the actress and the prince met each other during the filming of Hitchcock’s movie in the summer months of 1954, this is not the case. Rather, they met in May of the following year (1955) during the annual Cannes International Film Festival. Grace had been invited as a festival guest to represent The Country Girl. She first met the prince because of a photo publicity appointment made by the French weekly magazine, Paris Match. They met on the afternoon of May 6, 1955, at 4:00 p.m. at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco. The meeting was brief, about half an hour.230

  By the time To Catch a Thief had its world premiere in Los Angeles on August 3, 1955, Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Patricia Kelly of Philadelphia had begun exchanging letters in the months that followed their first (and only) half-hour-long rendezvous at the palace. It was less than six months between the premiere of the final Hitchcock-Kelly film and January 1956, and soon nothing would ever be the same. The would-be princess had found her prince.

  However, this was a bitter loss for Hitch, similar to when he “lost” Ingrid Bergman to Roberto Rossellini. She too had made three movies with Hitch. In addition, Grace Kelly in particular, specifically in To Catch a Thief, absolutely embodied his ideal of the cool blonde, more so than any of his other actresses before or after. He once said: “Grace Kelly’s apparent frigidity was like a mountain covered with snow, but that mountain was a volcano.”231

  The visual actualization of this quip can be found in To Catch a Thief in the scene in which Robie (Grant) accompanies Francie (Kelly) through the hall to her room after eating supper in the Carlton Hotel with mother Stevens and the insurance agent Hughson. He takes her to her door, which she unlocks. She takes a step into the room, turns around on the threshold, and looks at him for a long, electric moment. Then she goes to him and kisses him directly on the mouth, laying her left arm across his shoulder. Since they have only just met that very evening, this gesture is totally surprising, coming out of nowhere. Thus, Robie, as well as Hitchcock’s viewers, are completely baffled, speechless. Without a word, Grace, ever-elegant, takes a step back, still gazing intensely and penetratingly at Grant. Then she closes the white door directly in his face, still completely silent. “It was as though she’d unzipped Cary’s fly.”232 This was how Hitch later described this scene, smugly and with evident pleasure. This scene contains something almost transcendental. For a moment, Grant stands with his face toward the door. During this entire scene, the viewer has only seen him from the back. He finally turns around with confusion written across his face. He is also smiling faintly, and as he walks down the hotel corridor, he thoughtfully wipes Grace’s lipstick from his mouth with a white handkerchief. Only Hitchcock could have created such a Grace Kelly. Electrifying. Perfect.

  “I’ve never been very keen on women who hang their sex round their neck like baubles. I think it should be discovered. It’s more interesting to discover the sex in a woman than it is to have it thrown at you, like a Marilyn Monroe or those types. To me they are rather vulgar and obvious.”233 Grace remained Hitch’s ideal forever.

  To Catch a Thief did not necessarily end with a veritable happy ending. Hitchcock formulated it such that, “Cary Grant can convince himself that he wants to marry Grace Kelly. But her mother will live with them. So that’s an almost tragic conclusion.”234

  The ambivalent final line belongs to Francie, who hurriedly follows Robie to his country house. As they finally stand on the terrace in each other’s arms and kiss, she announces in a very self-satisfied tone: “So this is where you live! Mother will love it up here.” Again, completely baffled, Cary Grant looks at her and then past the camera into space. Grace Kelly holds him, her prize, close and tight. The cat has found her mate.

  —The First Meeting:

  Friday, May 6, 4:00 p.m.

  In March 1955, Rupert Allan called Grace Kelly. The PR agent had news for his client. She had been invited as an honorable guest to the International Film Festival in Cannes to represent the US festival entry, The Country Girl. Grace turned down the invitation. She did not want to travel again so soon, and she wished to gain some distance from the film industry and from show business. Allan begged her to seriously consider it, since it would be an important occasion. He said he would call again. Grace promised to think about it, though she knew she did not want to go. She wanted to stay in New York and finish furnishing her large, new apartment. She wanted to finally start feeling at home. Allan called Grace again a few days later from Los Angeles. This time he was more insistent. He told her that she had been invited by the French government and would represent her country, America. This went on for days. Rupert Allan came up with more and more arguments, each one more sound and significant than the last. In the end, Grace let herself be convinced. This was not the first time. Shortly after this, against her will, she agreed to do something that would change her life forever.

  In early May, Grace flew from New York to Paris. She had been there a year before with Edith Head. Again she had a couple of hours to spend in the city before catching the overnight Train Bleu from Paris to Cannes, where it arrived the following morning. Grace Kelly was not the only one traveling by train to the Riviera. Pierre Galante also sat on the Blue Train. He was the film editor for the popular weekly Paris magazine, Paris Match. His destination was the film festival. However, under orders from his managing editor Gaston Bonheur, Galante had another goal: a story about an arranged meeting at court between Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly. This photo shoot in the palace would be titled: “Prince Charming Meets Movie Queen.”

  Galante succeeded in meeting Grace. He was accompanied by his wife, actress Olivia de Havilland who had once been a star in such films as Gone with the Wind. She knew Gladys de Segonzac, a dresser for To Catch a Thief, who was also Grace’s travel companion to France. Intro
ductions were made. At first, Grace did not suspect what was coming her way. In addition, she had no idea how full her schedule would be during the film festival. Toward the end of the train ride, Galante addressed the issue of Monaco. He asked Grace what she would think about fleeing the festival melee for a few hours, seeing a little of the tiny principality, and having a personal audience with His Majesty Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Grace did not initially agree to this, but she also did not turn the opportunity down right away.

  On May 5, the following morning, Grace Kelly arrived in Cannes, where she was met at the train station by Rupert Allan, who took her to the Carlton Hotel. One year ago, it had been Alfred Hitchcock who had met her here.

  During her ten-day stay on the Côte d’Azur, as well as during the additional week spent in Paris, Grace again met with Jean-Pierre Aumont. During the days prior to her departure for Paris, he had taken her out to supper in New York and had visited her in her luxurious new apartment on Fifth Avenue. After all, a planned diversion with Jean-Pierre on the Riviera and in Paris was yet another good reason to give in to Rupert Allan’s demands. There is documentary television footage in black and white of Grace and Aumont holding hands and strolling through the historic center of Cannes and through La Napoule. They visited a pottery shop, they played boules in a public square. There are even photographs of an intimate meeting, a noon lunch, where they sat next to each other at the table. Captured was a moment in which she pulls his arm up toward her face to kiss his hand—a private moment that was made public and circulated. In Cannes for the festival and in the surrounding area as well, photographers and reporters lurked around every corner.

  Eventually in Paris, Grace and Aumont alighted at the Hotel Raphael, not far from the Champs-Élysées. They went to the theater and took walks that May through the City of Love. Finally, they spent a weekend with part of his extended family in Aumont’s country house in Malmaison, at the gates of the French capital.

  Grace’s contact with Cassini was on- and off-again at this time, and she had just met the Prince of Monaco. Now she was flirting with a man, Aumont, with whom she had been involved two years ago. This affair flared back into life for a short while. Again, a romance on the Riviera. And Aumont became increasingly hopeful and even mentioned marriage to various reporters—even he. He was not the first to have this hope. After about two and a half weeks abroad, Grace returned to America from France in the third week of May. While still in the airport, a television reporter asked her about her relationship with Aumont: “Good morning, Miss Kelly, it’s a beautiful day here in New York. Our viewers would certainly be very disappointed if I did not ask about rumors regarding your romance with Jean-Pierre Aumont, is it? Would you like to tell us about it?”

  Reserved and distant, Grace answered: “Well, I can only say that we are very good friends. I met Jean-Pierre a few years ago in New York and was really looking forward seeing him again in Cannes.”

  “Is it serious?”

  “Oh, no,” Grace said.235

  As far as Grace was concerned, the affair was over. It is said that Jean-Pierre Aumont was deeply in love with her and that he was very hurt and upset by her rejection.

  Previously, on May 6 in fact, after Grace had been in Cannes only one and a half days, the royal appointment at the palace in Monaco took place.

  When Grace first learned that she was expected to host an official reception for the Americans at the Festival at 5:30 p.m., she wanted to cancel her meeting with the prince. However, she was emphatically told that she could not do this as she had been officially invited to court. As a result, Paris Match editor Pierre Galante called the palace and successfully rescheduled the meeting from 4:00 to 3:00. However, before his press appointment with Grace Kelly, Prince Rainier had another appointment at his villa at Beaulieu, where he was hosting a meal. He would make every effort to be punctual. On her part, Grace had that late afternoon appointment in Cannes on her mind. The drive from Cannes to Monaco would take between sixty and ninety minutes each way. Because of this extremely tight schedule, tension and uncertainty reigned.

  The next day, a series of obstacles developed. During the festival, which was held in May 1955, there was a labor strike, a typical occurrence at the time—one that regularly brought sectors of the public life to a grinding halt. In this case, the power was cut off. There was no more electricity, even in the elegant Carlton. Thus, Grace, who had just washed her hair, could not use her hair dryer. Also, the newly unpacked dresses that were rumpled from the trip could not be ironed. Thus, on the morning of this ultimately fateful Friday, Grace stood in her hotel room with wet hair and wrinkled clothes. This was right before her audience with the prince and the photo shoot for the title story for a national weekly magazine.

  Gladys de Segonzac tried to help, and together they spontaneously improvised a solution. First of all, Grace brushed her hair until it was slightly drier, and then she bound it up into a bun. Her dresser tied her bun with a band of artificial flowers, which at least ornamented the back of her head a little and would replace the hat that was otherwise required at court. By the time she arrived in Monaco, her hair would be halfway dry in the warm temperatures that prevailed this time of year on the Côte. Among her clothes, they finally found one that was not rumpled. It was a black cotton dress with a flowered pattern in red and green. The sleeves were long, and the skirt came in tight at the waist and then spread into a wide skirt. Together with Gladys de Segonzac and Pierre Gallante, Grace left Cannes at 1:30 in a car rented by MGM.

  During the drive there along the sunny Riviera, the actress asked the journalist about the upcoming meeting. Pierre Galante described this drive: “She did not know the Prince at all. She asked me if he spoke English and if she had to curtsey. She was very nervous.”236

  In over-exuberance, the Peugeot carrying both photographers for Paris Match lightly rear-ended another car at a stop, so there was a further delay. After arriving in Monaco, Grace Kelly and company were initially informed by the palace that the prince was delayed. It was as if fate had his hand in the game.

  Eventually, Prince Rainier arrived a good three-quarters of an hour late. It was between 3:45 and 4:00 that he finally entered the palace. He asked Grace if he could show her around the palace. However, Grace responded that she already had seen the palace since she had looked around while they were waiting on the prince. Then, they went into the palace garden. The entire meeting was accompanied by the two Paris Match journalists, Pierre Galante and the photographer. They stayed a respectful distance away, so that the “couple” could at least feel a little undisturbed. They took a walk together in the garden. For the entire time, Grace wore only one of her white gloves, the one on her left hand. She had removed the one from her right hand when she had greeted the prince, and she held this for the whole time in her hands. This was a sure sign of her nervousness. After all the previous confusion that had led up to this moment, this awkward gesture seems all the more touching. Photos had already been taken inside the palace, in the Hercules Gallery on the second floor and on the wide, sweeping, white marble staircase that led from the gallery to the interior courtyard. Now more photos of Grace and Rainier were taken as they walked next to each other down the garden paths, as he showed her the view from the Rocher—the cliffs—as he showed her the mature stands of cacti and as he finally took her to the cages of his small private zoo.

  “They stood in front of the cage in which a tiger, a gift from the Emperor Bao-Dai of Indochina, was kept. Rainier pet the tiger on its head, just as if he was stroking a puppy. Grace was very impressed by this. One could sense just then that something had sparked between the two of them at that moment,” recounted eyewitness Pierre Galante.237 And Paris Match the huge story they’d been hoping for: the film princess had met Prince Charming.

  During the return trip from the principality to the festival in Cannes, a visibly taciturn Grace responded to Galante’s question about her impression of this half-hour meeting and of the prince. He
r answer was brief: “He is very charming.” “She had never shown her true feelings, nor did she later,” revealed Galante.

  However, the two of them could not have learned much about each other during this half hour. It could have been no more than an initial, fleeting impression, from both sides.

  As publicist Thomas Veszelits describes the scene, “It was an enchantment of two unbelievably charming people. Grace Kelly, Oscar winner and film star, and Prince Rainier, who looked like Douglas Fairbanks. This greatness. And in the background, the palace.”238 And both of them would not soon forget that walk in the royal garden.

  Born on May 31, 1923, in Monaco, the prince would soon be turning thirty-two. Since 1949, at the death of his grandfather Prince Louis II (1870–1949), Rainier III had become the Prince of Monaco. The arranged marriage of his parents, Prince Pierre Grimaldi, born Comte Pierre de Polignac (1895–1964) and his mother, the Monegasque Princess Charlotte Grimaldi de Monaco (1898–1977), ended in divorce in 1933, and since that time, they had made no claims to the Monegasque regency. In 1944, Charlotte, the daughter of Louis II, gave up her right to the throne. Thus, the succession eventually skipped a generation, passing directly from Prince Louis II to Prince Rainier III.

  Like his older sister, Princess Antoinette Grimaldi (1920–2011), Rainier was a child of divorce, and he was shaped by a rather unhappy, lonely childhood, which was itself characterized by frequent, irregular relocations. He was still single in the 1950s and was considered one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors. Rainier knew how to meet the opposite sex with charm.

  In the years before meeting Grace, he had had various shorter affairs, such as his six-year relationship with the French actress and Cannes native Gisèle Pascal (1921–2007). He saw her perform in the stage play His Lordship in 1948, and was captivated by her. This was the year before Rainier took the throne on May 9, 1949. Previously engaged to fellow actor and singer Yves Montand, Pascal acted in the 1942 black-and-white film L’Arlésienne under director Marc Allégret. Alongside Louis Jourdan, this was her first major role in a movie. She followed Rainier to Monaco and lived with him in his villa. Interestingly, in this context, this actress continued to pursue her profession, acting in such films as Véronique (1950) and Bel Amour (1951). During this time, she was in a long-term, committed, private relationship with Monaco’s sovereign. It can be assumed that if she had married Prince Rainier and been named the Princess of Monaco, she would have had to end her artistic career. This is exactly what happened to Grace Kelly later, after the wedding in April 1956.